Advanced Battery & Fuel Cell Start-up Log 9 Materials Raises $ 8.5 Million in Series A+ Funding led by Amara Raja Batteries

Log 9 Materials, a Bengaluru-headquartered advanced battery-tech and deep-tech start-up, today announced an equity partnership and collaboration with Amara Raja Batteries (ARBL), a battery technology leader. ARBL is one of India's largest manufacturers of industrial and automotive batteries.

Notably, Log 9 has raised an investment of $5 Million from Amara Raja Batteries during its ongoing Series A+ funding round.

ARBL's investment in Log 9 Materials is a part of the bold 'Energy & Mobility' strategy announced by the Company in June this year, which focuses on entering into new green technologies and solutions. These initiatives will include expansion and investments that will help the Company maintain technological and business leadership in the 'Energy & Mobility' space, apart from creating new growth avenues.

The investment will boost the development of indigenous technologies in India's nascent advanced battery sector for fast-emerging storage and mobility solutions. While providing an impetus to the research and development work at ongoing projects of Log 9, ARBL is expected to be the primary partner for scaling up the manufacturing operations of Log9's battery and fuel cell technologies.

Log 9's newly-developed Rapid Charging Battery Packs solve multiple challenges to expedite 2/3 wheeler EV adoption in India, whereas Log 9's flagship Aluminum Fuel Cell technology is targeted towards long-haul electric mobility and as a zero-emission alternative to diesel generators.

Akshay Singhal, Founder & CEO, Log 9 Materials says, "We are delighted to have ARBL as one of the anchor investors in the Series A+ funding round of Log 9. The partnership with ARBL will enable us to propel commercialization at the scale of our Rapid Charging Batteries, which in turn shall play a major role in the future in Log 9 eventually becoming the frontrunner and one of the largest Indian players in advanced cell chemistries. In the upcoming months of 2021, we at Log 9 are looking to take our breakthrough rapid charging battery-tech to end-users at scale; on the other hand, the development and advancements of our Aluminum Fuel Cells will also continue to happen in parallel -- including pilots and OEM-level vehicular integrations."

Vikramadithya Gourineni, Executive Director at ARBL said that their investment is in line with ARBL's plans to invest in cutting-edge technologies to accelerate its evolution towards becoming an 'Energy & Mobility' enterprise. "This will mark the first in a series of interesting developments that we plan to execute in the future. In this fast-changing technology landscape, we do not believe in a 'one-size-fits-all' approach and we are convinced that there will be the scope for an interplay of multiple technology solutions for various applications. We believe that Log 9 has made great progress in developing a range of technologies that will prove very promising in emerging mobility applications. I am confident that both entities can derive significant synergies resulting in mutual long term benefits. This investment is in line with our Core purpose and our Values, The Amara Raja Way," adds Vikramadithya Gourineni.

Log 9 has also announced that it has secured funding from existing investors including Exfinity Ventures and Sequoia Capital India's Surge Programme alongside a clutch of new investors, as a part of its Series A+ funding round. The strategic angels who also participated in this funding round are -- Rajesh Yabaji and Chanakya Hridaya, Co-Founders of logistics industry Unicorn Blackbuck; Rajesh Ramaiah, Partner, Premji Invest; Desikan Sundarajan, MD, Equinor and Faiz Mayalakkara, Director Investments, Emirates Investment Authority. AC Ventures (SEA Frontier Fund LLP) is also among the new investors of Log 9.

Chinnu Senthilkumar, General Partner & CTO, Exfinity Venture Partners LLP says, "In the last 18-24 months, Log 9 Materials has made tremendous progress, both on core technology development and strategic OEM business tie-ups. ARBL's anchor participation in the Series A+ round and strategic partnership further validates Log 9's cutting-edge technology solutions and its future commercial potential. ARBL's decades of pioneering experience - New Product launch, leadership in large scale manufacturing, know-how etc. give a mega boost to Log 9's vision and long-term strategy."

The new investors have, along with the existing investors, invested around $8.5 Million in the ongoing $10-12 Million Series A+ round. The fresh funds raised will be utilized to expand production capacity and business development efforts of Log 9's latest innovation -- Rapid Charging Battery technology -- which has already completed successful pilots and is due for commercial roll-out in October 2021. Further, these funds will also be utilized to advance the start-up's Supercapacitor and Aluminum Fuel Cell-based innovations. The start-up plans to set up local cell manufacturing for these technologies under the niche category of the ACC PLI Scheme in the coming years.

Founded in 2015, Log 9 Materials is a cutting-edge deep tech startup providing state of the art batteries suited for Indian and other developing markets. Be it in terms of EV batteries, energy storage or fuel cells, Log 9 is leveraging its materials and product innovation competency to produce technologies that are orders of magnitude superior to the currently available tech. Log 9 is the only company in India currently having competencies across materials, electrode, cell, and pack level fabrication of energy storage technologies.

Log 9 has applied its core competence in material science to develop pioneering solutions using the wonder material 'graphene. The underlying principle of the company is to address the chronic problem of climate change while building a sustainable and scalable business around the same. The start-up, the first one to be incubated at IIT-Roorkee's TIDES, has also been funded and backed by reputed investors like Sequoia, Exfinity Venture Partners and GEMS, among others.

Amara Raja Batteries Limited is an Energy and Mobility enterprise and one of the largest manufacturers of energy storage products for both industrial and automotive applications in the Indian battery industry.

In India, Amara Raja is the preferred supplier to major telecom service providers, Telecom equipment manufacturers, the UPS sector (OEM & Replacement), Indian Railways and the Power, Oil & Gas, among other industry segments. Amara Raja's industrial battery brands comprise PowerStack, AmaronVolt and Quanta. The Company is a leading manufacturer of automotive batteries under the brands Amaron and PowerzoneTM, which are distributed through a large Pan-India sales & service retail network.

The Company supplies automotive batteries under OE relationships to Ashok Leyland, Ford India, Honda, Hyundai, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, and Tata Motors. The Company's Industrial and Automotive Batteries are exported to countries in the Indian Ocean Rim.